For Folk's Sake » Angus and Julia Stone

Live: FFS @ The Great Escape

For Folk's Sake — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:05:57 +0000

On paper, Brighton’s Great Escape is a rather extraordinary proposition. Take three hundred or so up-and-coming artists, sprinkle on a dusting of more established acts and spread them across a hotchpotch of 30 venues. While that’s bubbling away nicely, throw together a crack team of industry types to muse over the future of the music industry in a pavilion. Do this for 3 days and 3 nights. It’s part festival, part convention, and it’s a very big ask. Thankfully, this is no shot in the dark. 2010 marks the 5^th coming of Europe’s biggest showcase of new music: these guys know how it’s really done. So it was then, that punters and delegates alike swooped upon the coast last week with nought but a map and a pining for the next big thing. I spoke to a delegate on Sunday. He said that the talks and presentations were ‘spot on’. Seems fairly conclusive to me. On to the music then. Here are my big 5:

Gabby Young – sans all but one of her animals and plonked in a hotel basement, delivered a performance that befits one on a trajectory to real eminence. What better acid test for a musician used to 8-piece backing and notorious for theatrical flamboyance, than the vulnerability of a single accomplice and utterly mundane setting. Whilst this stripped down guise restricted the range of her output, most notably any foray into jazz quarters, it proved to be a masterstroke in isolating her vocals. For the voice on show is a thing of brooding magnificence, surging from light to dark with striking effortlessness. ‘We’re all in this together’ was the lynchpin - a tender and humble turn drifting over woozy acoustic interplay. Any commentary that flaunts catchall tags of the burlesque, gothic and gypsy ilk does Gabby a real disservice; she is a symbol of complete individuality.

His Royal Highness, King Charles

Self-elected royal status is, without doubt, quite a statement. Not surprising then that King Charles is a confident young man. He is also very keen on polar bears. Presented with a seemingly indifferent crowd, he shelved any semblance of indignation and ripped into an audacious quest. A soundscape of astonishing proportions developed, dipping liberally into searing guitar-shred, rap and reggae bounce. His meditations fused a dalliance with wackiness (this is where the polar bears cropped up) with expansive questions of being, spanning love, faith, freedom and apocalypse. The foundation was that of searing tribal power, a life-force swelling with the passing of the set and crushing any frostiness in the ranks. ‘Lovelust’ and ‘Mr. Flick’ were anthemic. The playful ‘We didn’t start the fire’ (name checking both Laura Marling and Harold Shipman – probably a first) nigh-on incited a riot. Not content with a mere proverbial roof raising, the King scaled his drum kit and staged an unruly assault on a crash cymbal, his head momentarily ploughing through a ceiling tile. In short, glorious.

Of an occasion, the juxtaposition of sound, sight and mood can flummox a man. So it was at 2.30am at the Duke of York’s theatre as 10-piece Sons of Noel and Adrian departed stage right. So this might seem a trifle melodramatic following what was essentially a proficient display of traditional folk and Gaelic songcraft. The willowy close harmonies and rich intricacy of sweeping strings were agreeable. Coupled with this, the triumphant edge to their delivery was positively inspiring. The problem centred on a progressive descent into the morose and awkward. What with the jagged raising of arms, lightening deployment of bows and spiderlike guitar work set against an incessant pounding of feet, the cumulative effect was a bit overwhelming. And borderline spooky. Certainly an intriguing arrow in the folksy quiver but perhaps better enjoyed in smaller doses.

Esben and the Witch

Tip-offs had flown in that Brighton’s very own Esben and the Witch were not to be passed-up. A sizeable assemblage of the expectant ensued. As did a red wine on scarf incident. An ominous start. Things were none too clever on stage either. Band members paced back and forth in a distinctly restless sound check. This spilt into an opener rife with frantic sort-our-levels-out-now arm waving and speakers spluttering under strain of intense processed beats. Fortunately, this was largely remedied come track 2 and the trio got down to business. That business being one of shrewdly calculated craftsmanship; growling, reverb-soaked guitars and keys successively layered upon multifarious swirls of percussive electonica and dubstep. The instrumentation was – at times – impossible to isolate, such were the climaxes of grinding and drilling-like rasps. The hooded Rachel Davis played horrorshow storyteller-come-conductor within this expanse, heralding the surge from ebb to flow with driving bangs of her drum. The hordes were wholly transfixed; unsurprising given the scale of intrigue unfolding before them. And of all of this without appearing overly pretentious.

When debate regarding dream festival closers crops up, Angus & Julia Stone’s collective hat (ideally of the weather-beaten cowboy strain) should be cast into the ring with some force. Such was the joyous beauty pervading Saturday’s climactic set that it recurrently drifted into the otherworldly. Not content with the mastery of songcraft permeating her own work, Julia offered forth a stunning cover of “You’re the one I want” at the halfway point, her achingly-soft delivery bettered only by her powers of reinvention. Faced with the very essence of the graveyard shift, Angus then called upon “Just a boy”, a melodious trump card that swept him from the jaws of an almighty pickle. The blanket of beaming grins illuminating the room bedecked fanatics, converts and band members alike. Anybody inclined to shun the softer end of the acoustic on account of boredom should be marched down to an A&J show post haste; they shall be transformed.

Words: Robert Lane

The Folk Artist Twitter Directory

Stephen W Thomas — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:30:09 +0000

Below is our attempt at a comprehensive directory of folk artists currently on Twitter – of course, we aren’t Twitter deities and as such will almost certainly have missed out on certain artists. Let us know if you can think of any tweeting folk musicians in the comments below.

Akron/Family

Angus and Julia Stone

Asthmatic Kitty (Label)

Brian: FFS’s Mixtape-Making Owl

Broadcast 2000

Caitlin Rose

Cherbourg

Colin Meloy (Decemberists)

Damien Rice (PR Account)

Dev Hynes (Lightspeed Champion)

Divine Comedy (PR account)

Efterklang

Emmy the Great

Fanfarlo

FFS (Official Account)

Kurran & the Wolfnotes

Laura Marling (PR account)

Lisa Hannigan (PR account)

Lisa Mitchell

Lissie

The Living Sisters (PR account)

Local Natives

The Low Anthem

Midlake

Monsters of Folk (PR account)

The New Pornographers

Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy)

Peggy Sue

Rebecca Taylor (Slow Club)

Rufus Wainwright (PR account)

She & Him (PR account)

St. Vincent

Sweet Billy Pilgrim

The Swell Season (PR account)

The Swell Season (Glen Hansard)

Album: Angus & Julia Stone – Down The Way

Joe Skrebels — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:34:41 +0000

Something’s changed in the Stone siblings; not drastically, but certainly enough to notice. Their first album, A Book Like This was characterised by its gentle lilt – the sort of music you could imagine romantic scenes in fields being set to – but from the distorted guitar fade-in, kick-drum beat and sweeping strings of album opener “Hold On” it’s clear that Angus and Julia have gone in a ‘bigger’ direction for their sophomore effort.

Of course, their initial charm remains, mostly because of the pair’s wonderfully idiosyncratic voices, which endeared them to so many the first time around – Angus’ creaking mumbles are here in full force and Julia’s vocals have got even more mouselike and breathy if anything. What’s changed most for the pair then isn’t the style of their music, it’s how they present it. With electric guitar at the forefront of many tracks, string-filled crescendos leading to catchy choruses and far more emphasis on the rhythm section, we’re presented with the same folk-pop approach but with far more emphasis on the pop side.

Sometimes this works wonderfully, as on first single “And The Boys”, where the drums push Julia’s usually languorous vocals a little faster than you’d expect and lead to a perfect singalong chorus. Sometimes it doesn’t work quite as well – “Big Jet Plane” strains a little too far towards the kind of MOR soft-pop beloved of Radio 2, perfectly lovely but lacking any real punch.

But really, this new, louder approach is best when applied to something a little different. “Black Crow” possesses the soft menace of the quiet parts of early Pixies tracks at points whilst album centrepiece “Yellow Brick Road” lets both siblings stretch their classic rock muscles a little with a lazy blues-like solo taking up a hefty part of the 7-and-a-half minute runtime without managing to seem completely self-indulgent.

However, the real standout doesn’t utilise any of this new-found capability for noise. “Santa Monica Dream” sounds like the kind of song that Angus and Julia could have written on the beaches of their Sydney home long before they got access to drummers and string sections. A delicate acoustic number devoid of anything but two voices and two guitars, this is a perfect slice of nostalgia and regret with lines like ‘Goodbye to the children we’ll never meet/And the ones we left behind’ packing an emotional punch that’s only heightened by hearing both siblings singing together for one of the few times on the album.

Nonetheless, Down The Way is a relaxing, rewarding listen throughout and certainly shows the scope of the Stones’ musical prowess. They may have left the folk of their debut at the wayside somewhat, but what they’ve replaced it with can be every bit as joyful.

Words: Joe Skrebels

Album Review: Lady Of The Sunshine – Smoking Gun

Lynn Roberts — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:59:24 +0000

There are times when trivial things begin to get on top of you, and you wonder how you came to be at this junction in your life. You daydream about taking a road trip on a summers’ day, along the coast and through hazy meadows, tranquil blue skylines and accompanied by blurred visions of friends laughing.When your epiphany seizures into your new reality, Smoking Gun will be the soundtrack to your life, enrapturing you into a blissful state of being.

Opening track ‘Silver Revolver’ carries a weight of sadness and beauty that needs the vocal expertise of Angus Stone, aka Lady Of The Sunshine, to bring it from morbid delusion to blissful summer solstice. Imagine becoming enrapt in the strumming of a guitar string that for those three minutes there has never been a more beautiful sound.

But the strength of this album is that it can suddenly switch to heavier moments, as in ‘White Rose Parade’, without losing any of the aesthetic that the desirable day dream is delving into. ‘Smoking Gun’ and ‘Dead Man’s Train’ belong to the established seventies dream which Angus seems to be reaching, and has caught up with many a time.

Smoking Gun should not be confined to the limits of categories such as surfer-rock, stoner jams, or indeed pop-lite. It is instead a gentle acoustic-led collection of retrospective, contemplative songs, which offer an illusion of grandeur.

Many albums are given the contrived title of Soundtrack to the Summer, and they are usually anything but. Smoking Gun is the album that will be played when the sun gives its final farewell of the day, when the horizon of crashing waves becomes a crescendo of alienating sounds, when the day becomes hot, and there is no choice but to lie back and grab a cold one.

Words: Peter Clark

Angus and Julia Stone

Lynn Roberts — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:45:52 +0000

You might also be interested in... Live: FFS @ The Great Escape The Folk Artist Twitter Directory Album: Angus & Julia Stone – Down The Way Album Review: Lady Of The Sunshine – Smoking Gun Angus and Julia Stone finish new album

(Read more...)

Categories: Artist profiles

Tags: Angus and Julia Stone

Angus and Julia Stone finish new album

Lynn Roberts — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:52:25 +0000

Angus and Julia Stone have revealed that their new album is almost complete.

Speaking in a radio interview with BBC 6Music the brother and sister duo said they had nearly finished working on the album, which they had been recording at Sawmills studio in Cornwall.

For the follow-up to 2007′s A Book Like This, which was produced by Travis frontman Fran Healey, the pair plan to tackle production themselves. Julia said: “The first record was put together in maybe two weeks. This time we’re taking our time a bit more and thinking more about it.”

She added: “I think it will have a clearer sound to it, maybe not as raw as A Book Like This.”

Words: Lynn Roberts